Summer’s here, and that typically means a drop off in all sorts of student activities on campus- including SGA. If your SGA is anything like UMass Boston’s, this is probably the last thing you want to do, even if running on a limited number of available students. After all, everything at the school doesn’t pause for the summer- there are summer students, policy decisions, etc that continue whether or not SGA representatives are present.
Of course, one solution for this is to talk to administration and make sure the SGA is contacted about any important decisions being made so that student input is heard prior to such policy being put in place. In addition, if the body as a whole is willing to trust its officers or a small committee of SGA members to make some summer decisions, this may also be helpful. For example, here at UMass Boston our Senate passed the Summer Spending Act of 2010- which gave authority to Senate leadership to spend excess funds after a certain date on specific items or categories of items, alongside stringent record keeping and reporting policies. This allowed spending decisions to be made with excess funds that may normally go unspent to benefit the clubs and campus as a whole instead. When the rest of the students come back, it is also apparent the SGA works for them year round, and not just when all eyes are on you.
Summer can also be a great time to revamp policies or bylaws. We spent the previous summer doing such a major overhaul- transitioning from a parliamentary to a three branch system. Of course, not all changes will be so drastic. Maybe you’ve noticed that a funding policy isn’t quite fit your SGA’s needs or did what was intended. Maybe some forms are out of date. These are all issues that could be tackled over the summer. The great thing about the summer is you have some time to do some research on these issues and strengthen your claim for when the SGA is back in an official session. What’s also great about this is you don’t necessarily need approval- you can simply do some work a little at a time, and present it to the full body upon your return as a comprehensive improvement on the old system using that research. Of course, you will want to ensure they have enough time to review such a plan, and should also seek input throughout the summer. Either way, it is still something you can feasibly do without having to get a number of bodies in a room before you get to work.
Regardless of the breadth of origins of your SGA, you can still accomplish plenty over the summer. The summer is arguably the best time to do an internal audit and look at what needs to be updated so the SGA can best function. The time and dedication may be there, and students are unlikely (or unable, if you also do the above) to complain about a lack of action on the part of the SGA. Quite simply, summer actions are key. It may be a time to take a break from school for many of you, and maybe pick up some more hours at work to pay the outrageous cost of an education, but the work should NEVER stop. There is always more to be done, more improvements to be made, and progress to make. Your SGA must continue to work and evolve, no matter what the season.
